It's The Thought That Counts
by Yukitsu
Summary: Christmas Fic. Probably just a pointless fluff without an ounce of romance. Kurapika gets an idea to make his friends Christmas Cards as he used to do back as Rukuso.


It's the thought that counts  
  
by Yukitsu  
  
Disclaimer: Hunter X Hunter and all the characters in it are not mine. I just like toying with them.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
It was, with all due respect, not fun to go out shopping with females. Kurapika was a rather enthusiastic supporter of this statement, and would be even more so should his current employer decide to take him to another spree.  
  
"Let's go!" Neon chirped energetically, nearly bouncing out of the hotel's suite in her excitement. Bashou gave a nearly audible groan while Senritsu patiently tagged along behind the teenager. Kurapika merely gave them a passive look and followed suite.  
  
Alas, even the festive mood of the holiday season wouldn't spare him.  
  
"I want to buy Papa a gift, but he has everything already. I don't know what to give him" Neon whined half an hour later, alighting from the black automobile and hopping onto to the cobblestone sidewalk leading towards the mall entrance. Her pink and lavender silks bounced along with her, and her pastel colored hair swished with her irritated gestures.  
  
"Why don't we look around, Neon-sama" Senritsu suggested. Neon looked through numerous glass windows, went in half the numerous glass windows' stores, and bought at least one article for sale from each.  
  
At the end of the hour and dozens of paper bags with items she bought for herself later, she found that she was still gift-less for her father.  
  
"What am I going to do?" Neon wailed, her lower lip trembling with despair and eyes moistening with future tears.  
  
"If you won't mind my suggesting, I think that maybe you can make something for your father" Kurapika sighed, fixed his face with a slightly different expression other than his passive, no-nonsense one, and gave his voice an encouraging ring to it in the hopes that Neon will take his advice and end their mad stampede through the crowded area earlier than usual.  
  
In the background, Bashou sighed with exaggerated relief.  
  
"Like what?" Neon demanded, looking up at the young Kuruta.  
  
"Anything that you think won't be too hard on you. The man is, after all, your father. He'll like it, whatever you'll think of" The blond wistfully thought of the time when holiday cards were what he bothered with during this time of the year, not revenge and getting his clan's eyes back.  
  
"All right then! I'll make him a Christmas Card!" Neon, all energetic once more, bound off to the nearest novelty store she remembered passing.  
  
"You're a life saver, Kurapika. Let's go out sometime, my treat" Bashou whispered fiercely, very much a believer that real men like him didn't belong in malls with pink clad brats and shopping bags enough to build a house.  
  
Kurapika blinked and moved to follow his employer. Senritsu smiled amusedly behind them.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
"So how should I go about doing this?" Neon stuck her tongue firmly against the inside of her cheek and concentrated on tracing an overly plump Christmas tree on the front of her nearly cardboard-thick paper. The paper was bright red, and her brilliant green glitters made it look Christmas-y already, even with just the tree's outline.  
  
"If you cut out little balls and stars with the other colored paper, you can stick in on your tree" Senritsu handed the teen a pink sheet and a pair of scissors.  
  
Kurapika watched the two females on the floor from his spot on the windowsill. It was snowing outside, and he was relieved that they got back to the five-star hotel before it started. He glanced at Bashou, quietly reading something akin to a comic book.  
  
He missed being with familiar faces during the festivities. Years back, this time of the year, he would have been doing nothing but either laze around or making cards. The years between his clan's death and his being a Hunter passed by in a blur, and he appreciated the holidays again only now when he actually had someone to spend it with.  
  
Or rather, some people he was supposed to spend it with.  
  
Kurapika thought of suitable gifts for his three ever-supportive friends. He had thought of it before, but nothing ever came to mind.  
  
Perhaps a nice new bag for Gon and a matching one for Killua would do, since they stay together everywhere. A good book would be practical for a doctor-to-be like Leorio. A kit for maintaining flutes would be the best for Senritsu.  
  
Kurapika shook his head. Those just won't do. If they needed it -- or even wanted it -- they'd get it. Material things weren't beyond his friends' reach -- they had means to afford what they wanted.  
  
"Papa better like these Christmas Cards.... There are none of these in stores!" Neon said proudly, showing her first card and already working on her second. She couldn't decide if she wanted a Christmas tree, a snowman, or a holly on the card's cover, that was why she had decided to make a card for each design in her head.  
  
And then it hit Kurapika.  
  
Hand-made Christmas Cards  
  
It's the thought that counts  
  
"I'm going out. I'll be back in an hour. Take care of Neon-sama" Kurapika hastily bid, rapping out orders to the tuxedo-clad men outside their door.  
  
"What's gotten into him?" Bashou asked absentmindedly, engrossed with his reading material.  
  
Senritsu smiled cheerfully. "He's going back to being a child for a while"  
  
~~~~~~  
  
"Silver for Killua, green for Gon, and blue for Leorio" Kurapika murmured to himself, laying out his supply of papers and other miscellaneous art materials on the floor of his room. He could hear the females outside of his door, still at the cards. Now that Neon had finished the cards for her father, she decided to make one for each of them for the sheer fun of it. Senritsu shared the festive mood and had made the spoilt teenager a pink card with gift-designs at the front.  
  
"Red for Senritsu" he added the said colored-paper on top of his pile. After much thought, he set a pink one and an orange sheet. If he still had time and ideas, he'd make Bashou and Neon one each too.  
  
It was easy making a design for Gon. The Santa Claus easily fit the color and Gon's personality. After all, Gon was the generous, trusting type. One who would spend the rest of his senior years playing and entertaining kids with stories of his good old Hunter days. Kurapika added a paper-sack, a paper-hat, and other details. Everything he cut out from paper and glued together.  
  
Killua got the Santa's Elves. Kurapika would have given him the Snowman, but he thought Elves had enough mischief in them to match the Zoldick's. The Elf got a small paper hat, as well as small paper shoes. Kurapika frowned a bit before adding belts and collars with the buttons and colorfully 'wrapped' boxes of gifts. The naughty face, he drew on with a felt tip pen.  
  
It was Leorio who got the Snowman. It was a rather silly looking snowman. One who had a pair of shades and a smart looking top hat made also of paper. Kurapika cut beady eyes from the smaller pieces of left-over green paper, the glue he used darkening both sides and making the snowman's eyes sharp and piercing. Silly looking snowman.  
  
Like Neon's first card, Kurapika made a Christmas tree against the red paper for Senritsu. Only under the tree, he painstakingly cut off the thin figure of a flute, added details with a thin pen, and glued it there. Finding the tree empty, Kurapika cut out Christmas balls for it and added Christmas gifts to put under the tree's shade. There was even a yellow star on top.  
  
Kurapika thought for a while, and neatly wrote short messages on the insides of the cards. Short messages that said 'Thanks for being a friend, Merry Christmas, and be happy this New Year'. He inserted them carefully inside light colored envelopes, setting Senritsu's aside as she was just outside his door.  
  
"Leorio" Kurapika murmured to himself, neatly writing the name on the back of the envelope. After rummaging around his things, he finally found the slip of paper where Leorio said he would be staying. He also wrote that down with neat letters.  
  
"Killua Zoldick" was next. Kurapika doubted if Killua would get the card if he sent it to Kukulu, so he put Gon's address on it instead.  
  
Gon's card shared a similar fate.  
  
He would mail it to his friends the moment the post office opened the next day, for Christmas Eve was the day after that, and he wanted his cards to reach his friends in time for at least New Year.  
  
It was a small thing, making Christmas Cards. But not only did Kurapika make his friends SOMETHING, he was also now at peace with himself.  
  
Christmas Cards were a sort of traditional thing for him whenever the Season came. The cards he made today were the first cards he ever made after the tragedy that struck him.  
  
And he felt damn good about it  
  
A warm feeling...  
  
Because he had people to make cards for again  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Umm.. okey. It was pointless, I know. I just couldn't help it. After all, this is the first fluff that I'm going to post in the HxH category, and I decided that it should be for an occassion.  
  
I haven't proofread this much yet, because if I do, I'll end up posting this next Christmas.  
  
I wrote this after reading each and every chapter of Yomi's Untitled. So in a way, this is dedicacated to my forum-mates. Merry Christmas!  
  
December 25, 2003 


End file.
